Wrap Up

In general, I have mixed feelings about the 8200. On the plus side is its routing and VPN performance, which are unmatched by anything else I've tested to date. Its feature set is also extensive, but accessing and understanding those features will be difficult for many users, given the exsiting documentation.

I guess I have to say that the 8200 is a diamond in the rough, and needs a firmware release or two of bugfixing and feature additions before it will really sparkle. Since it's also a first-in-category product, it may need some time to find its target customer base. Its pricing - around $250 at the time of this review - will make it a pass for most home networkers, but still within reach of the home office / telecommuter/ SMB crowd - even with an external drive which will add, at minimum, about $100 to its price.

And in the end, that's the real question: Is the combination of a PPTP and IPsec VPN endpoint router with optional file sharing and FTP capabilities - but no file or folder-level permissions - a compelling buy? I think it could be, but USR has some work to do before it is.